G.I. Joe Vs. Transformers 2 (Review)

Yes, they did team up/fight each other, no this post isn’t about that. However, combining the star ratings together of these two would actually give it almost a passable score.

Transformers Revenge of the Fallen (Transformers 2) and G.I. Joe Rise of Cobra graced the screens this summer, and both are available now on DVD. I’m glad I waited because Netflix eases the pain of the price to watch them over the $8.00 tickets at the theater.

In the end, G.I. Joe is somewhat watchable, but Transformers 2 should be avoided at all costs. Even for free. Even if your relationship depends on it. You can’t spend the rest of your life with someone who likes this movie.

Neither movie was very good to their source material, but I’m not the type to necessarily dock points for that. Also, their source material was a children’s television show, so going outside of that may even be a good thing. Both movies were basically a video game on the screen, with CGI worlds galore. Transformers went way overboard, however, in showing the stupidest looking robots doing stupid things in stupid locations. G.I. Joe actually has some pretty neat action scenes, some real sword fighting, and only towards the end does it reach Transformers level of weirdness.

The acting in Transformers 2 and characters are absolutely horrible. If you can figure out what the heck is going on, you’ll probably be even more annoyed by both the robots and the humans. The first Transformers was pretty good in my mind, and had some decent humor, with some fair acting. The new one will just grate at you the entire time. Megan Fox may be enough for some, but you’ll need to turn the volume and closed captioning off.

As for G.I. Joe, the plot is pretty dumb but some of the characters are decent. There is also a lot of backstory that is revealed throughout the film that they do a fair job keeping your interest in. The character Snake Eyes, who doesn’t say a word, is quite fun to watch. The main G.I. Joe characters (including a Wayans brother, and Dennis Quaid) are surprisingly bad choices for their roles. The secondary characters and villains are much more interesting, and for 2/3 of the movie it is pretty decent. The ending falls apart, and the very end is a long setup for a sequel, which hurts the movie a lot since you don’t really understand the whole Cobra vs. Joe thing until the end, and then the credits roll right when it might start to get good. Might.

Didn’t want to go into any additional plot details, not because of spoilers, but because the plots in both are pretty unimportant, and I’m not entirely sure that Transformers 2 had a plot. I will say that G.I. Joe gets right into the action and moves pretty fast, while making general sense, but Transformers 2 starts off slow, and then confounds the whole thing with new characters, resurrected old ones that you arent sure how they are coming back, and new magical objects that you won’t understand.

Skip Transformers 2, it is humiliating how bad it is when it could’ve easily been as good as the first. Check out G.I. Joe when it runs on TBS in a few years as it is watchable and has great special effects, but you won’t be missing anything if you don’t see it.

Rating

Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen

one star out of five stars

G.I. Joe Rise of Cobra

two stars out of five stars